GIS for spatial landslide distribution analysis in the Transylvanian Depression

Abstract

Landslides represent one of the most important hazardous geomorphic phenomena in the Transylvanian Depression, the vast depressional area inside the Carpathian Mountains. For the landslide’s distribution analysis, we used five criteria: geology, slope, altitude, exposition and the 3rd order administrative units. This type of studies are a must, on one hand to find out how the current landslides are distributed, and on the other hand to identify the areas which are prone to this type of hazardous geomorphic phenomena. By investigating the study area’s ortophotoplans and topographic maps, 13.157 landslides were vectorized to create a landslide inventory map. The study shows that lithologic conditions (the presence of friable rocks such as marls, clays, sand) and the land use (mostly agricultural lands) are the most defining factors for landslide development, it is believed that in the future landslides will appear on similar slope, orientation and geological conditions. In this situation, to know the susceptible areas to landslides it will represent a valuable information for the territorial planning and also to avoid the building and expanding of other civil engineering constructions on lands which are prone to landslides.

Keywords

• landslides
• spatial statistics
• spatial distribution
• GIS